


dead of night

by baecobz



Series: in every universe [15]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Turned Into a Ghost, M/M, Moral Ambiguity, Motels, Murder, Violence, ghost au, lapslock, rated m bc they swear lots and this is centered around someone Dead so. yeah sfjlkjsd, yukhei is aged up a few yrs and mark is technically aged down a few
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 00:34:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14842202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baecobz/pseuds/baecobz
Summary: when yukhei steps back during evenings like this, gets to see mark perched on his bed and smiling from across a glass of wine and a deck of cards, yukhei figures it's worth every moment on the run.





	dead of night

ever since yukhei had settled into the decades-old motel room-- where he had been staying for seven months, mind you-- he had quickly developed a routine.

there were the usual preparations, obviously, where he got ready and prepared himself for the day; there were other habits, like throwing out his burner phone every sunday and doing his grocery shopping, or checking up on the news. he still hasn’t even been reported as a suspect for the incident, but he’s not going to take chances by staying out of the loop.

then, usually after he feels all fuzzy and sated after dinner (burger king, if he wants to treat himself), it’s his favorite part of the day-- game night with mark.

it doesn’t happen every day, with the occasional overlaps in their schedules, but it’s consistent enough that yukhei can count on it.

today, for instance, even after a nasty encounter with the older woman down the street (she keeps pestering him about how long he’s going to stay in town, never having believed his flimsy excuses of taking a break from work or city life); although yukhei trusts she would never report him to any sort of authority, he doesn’t doubt that she might let something slip to the wrong person.

he tells mark as much, complaining and worrying over cheap wine as the younger boy reassures him and gives him promises of pranks or excuses to keep the woman off his back.

he doesn’t drink anything, because even if he physically could, yukhei still refuses to let him have anything alcoholic-- (“we’re the same age, yukhei. if it’s illegal for me, it’s illegal for you.” “yeah, except you’re  _ dead _ . i have to, like, preserve your memory, or whatever.”)

yukhei had come to the motel once, years ago, on a whim-- he had taken a road trip over the weekend and found himself in a run down neighborhood filled with chipped walls and rusted doors, with but a single place renting out rooms for people to stay the night. yukhei had ended up there just because he hadn’t felt like sleeping in his car (it got to be a bit cramped after the first few nights), but any fatigue disappeared when he saw the boy sitting on the edge of what was supposed to be an empty bed, smiling up at him with tired eyes and stained clothes.

what he had first dismissed as one of those  _ what you see in the corner of your room when you have sleep paralysis  _ sort of things quickly became real-- the boy had introduced himself (“call me mark,” he had hummed, standing by the rickety tv with awkward arms and a sigh, “it’d be nice to hear someone say my name. the last person here wouldn’t stop screaming long enough for me to explain anything.”)

yukhei had been tired, sure, so perhaps that was the only reason he had kept quiet; regardless, he kept his mouth shut as the younger boy sat on the bed again, watched with wide eyes as the sheets refused to shift under his weight, and listened as mark explained.

he had been killed a few months ago, and although there were a list of suspects and probable motives, the police hadn’t caught the killer. mark, in his frustration, told yukhei that he would probably keep lingering until they had been brought to justice.

“lingering? you were  _ killed _ ?” yukhei’s mind hadn’t even been able to grasp the subject, stumbling over the notion of a dead boy in his room. “oh shit, are you a ghost?”

“i think? at first i couldn’t really  _ appear _ , you know? it was just in mirrors and peripheral corners, but i got the hang of it now. will you help me?”

and yukhei hadn’t even asked any more questions, just heard mark out and nodded and thought, and by the time the sun had risen the next morning, he had agreed to do whatever he could to get mark justice.

perhaps that didn’t necessarily mean he should go back to seoul to track down and inevitably murder the man that had killed mark, but.

karma’s a bitch, right?

however yukhei decided to justify it to himself, it had ended with him here-- twenty two years old, dropped out of college, and living in fear that his crime might catch up to him.

(not his mistakes, he reminds himself, because that asshole had it coming, and yukhei was just all too willing to do what had to be done. and if it made mark beam back at him from between dingy walls and chipped furniture, maybe it was just a little bit more worth it.)

since yukhei has essentially moved into his motel room, the same one he had rented years ago, just in case mark was only technically “haunting” one, he and mark had started spending more time together. a lot of it had been a coincidence, simply because they were two people existing in the same place, confined to the motel for altogether different and similar reasons, but also because they began to enjoy each other’s company.

mark said he missed talking to people, missed the warmth of someone beside him and the feeling of a lively conversation.

yukhei couldn’t really use the same excuses, not when he used to have a dozen close friends and the attention of most of his peers, but-- mark’s company was different. while he had first contributed it to mark’s whole ghostliness, it had evolved quickly into something greater, more consuming. because mark was smart and kind and funny, and he always knew when to nod and listen or when to laugh and cut in to make his own teasing remarks. every conversation is an easy one, because even when they have to talk about something difficult (like when they first saw each other again seven months ago, or when mark was practicing his physical form and accidentally started a fire that burned half of yukhei’s closet), they talk and listen as though their dialogue is a preplanned thought process-- calm and fluid, and never without a good joke thrown in.

“so, how’s your practice going?” yukhei keeps his voice light, knows that mark’s been anxious lately about how hard it is for him to keep a tangible form. thankfully, his practice must’ve gone well today, because he stands up with a grin.

“let me show you.” he says simply. yukhei can never say no to him, so he nods and waits. he finds himself doing a lot of that with mark: sitting quietly and watching in awe as mark pulls and points him around as he please. (he doesn’t mind.)

mark makes his way around the edge of the bed before climbing on, and yukhei stares with avid fascination as the bed dips under mark’s weight, sheets wrinkling when he crawls towards yukhei on hands and knees. he sits back when he’s just inches from yukhei, grinning, and tilts his head.

“wanna see more?”

if yukhei nods a little too quickly, throat dry, the world will never know.

(mark probably won’t, either, because he looks just as nervous. it’s a relief to know that even now, as always, they’re in this together.)

mark crawls forward again, and yukhei shifts in his spot to let mark flop down onto his lap and cup his face in his hands. it’s not quite the same warmth that people normally have, but it’s close, and yukhei’s gone long enough without any physical contact that it feels the same. even mark’s weight on his legs is a comfortable one, and yukhei can’t help the small giggle that pushes past his lips-- he has mark here, with him in the flesh (or close enough), and nothing could be better.

then mark is pressing the briefest of kisses to his cheek, crawling off of him with unnerving ease, watching yukhei from over his shoulder even as he tip toes back to his spot on the floor. when he sits, the blanket there doesn’t shift at all, and yukhei notices with barely concealed regret that mark’s shadow fades from the floor.

“that’s awesome.” yukhei says eventually, partially because he has nothing else to say, but also because he genuinely believes it, and wants to give mark some sort of words of affirmation. “so, like, how long can you do it for now? you’ve gotten really steady.”

“almost twenty minutes, if i try really hard.” yukhei balks at that, because the last time he had asked mark about it, the answer had been closer to five. it had been awhile since then, sure, but  _ still _ . “i, uh, may have practiced a lot since last time.”

and “last time” had been almost weeks ago for multiple reasons-- it had been awkward when yukhei asked, and mark had clearly been frustrated by his own inability to do it for longer, so they avoided the subject as much as possible. most of all, though, yukhei had ended up drunk and affectionate and had, perhaps, tried to kiss mark.

said boy had also, perhaps, literally phased out of sight as soon as yukhei had gotten close.

needless to say, while the two of them agreed not to repeat any sort of incident (“while sober,” yukhei had added on quickly, and mark had laughed and nodded in agreement as yukhei pretended not to feel his heart swell), a follow up conversation had been a long time coming.

then yukhei remembers the fact that today really does mark his seventh month at the motel, surviving off of expired convenience store food and shitty internet, and  _ wow _ , time really flies.

it’s just a bit worse, though, because he’s grown a few centimeters, maybe put on a few pounds (“of muscle, obviously” he tells mark, and mark just grins, rolls his eyes, and agrees), but mark hasn’t changed at all. it’s not that big of a deal, because they still look close enough in age, but the difference is still there-- mark is still the scrawny nineteen year old he met a lifetime ago, and it makes yukhei yearn for a world where they grow old together.

“hey, mark? don’t take this the wrong way, because i love spending time with you and you’re great, but--” yukhei takes a breath and remembers that difficult conversations don’t exist between the two of them, a result of their comfortable relationship and the trust they share, “you said your murderer was the reason you couldn’t move on, right? why you’re a ghost?”

“yes.” mark’s eyes look colder in the candlelight, the way they do when he stops putting effort into staying visible and real for yukhei to see. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it means his mind is elsewhere, and that in of itself can be a hit or miss.

“so why are you still here?”

_ i love you, but you can’t stay here forever _ , yukhei doesn’t say, just like he keeps his mouth shut to avoid admitting,  _ this isn’t healthy. i want you to move on _ .

_ i love you more than you can imagine _ , mark whispers in his head, where it’s safe and there are no consequences.  _ i love you so, so much _ .

and maybe mark can’t quite tell yukhei as much, because there’s that sinking feeling in his chest that only grows as the days progress; he figures yukhei likes him back, but he’s not quite sure yet, and that doubt is the only thing keeping mark chained down to this miserable (beautiful) world. if he confesses, he’s fairly sure of the response he’ll get back-- and it’ll be sunshine and rainbows for who knows how long, all until mark is being tugged into whatever awful afterlife awaits him. he may have believed in heaven when he was a human, after all, but what sort of heaven could it be without yukhei?

yukhei himself watches with his breathing intentionally quiet, eyes trained on the way mark’s body flickers in and out, mirroring the tiny flame between them. yukhei stands up, ever so slowly, and rises off of the bed, footsteps light as he approaches the other boy.

he knows there’s no point in initiating any sort of contact, so he sits and waits until mark blinks himself back to the present, away from past knives or future wings and instead on their moldy hotel room, complete with a ratty television set and flies.

“hey, you don’t have to tell me. i just wanted to make sure you were thinking about it, was all.” yukhei opens his arms, and mark is far too willing to use just a few more of his twenty minutes. he comes back, first visually and then physically, before leaning into yukhei’s chest and curling against him.

neither of them really say anything else for the rest of the night; yukhei murmurs a few reassurances into mark’s hair, but neither of them are really paying attention to what he’s saying so much as the fact that he’s saying something. when mark dozes off, his weight fades completely from yukhei’s arms. the older boy is left to clean up the candle and wine, sliding into his bed afterwards with a sigh and a wish for a few hours instead of twenty minutes, maybe even a whole day, if it meant he could go to sleep with mark by his side.

he’s pretty sure it’d never work out like that, anyways, because mark still can’t control it without focusing, but yukhei still hopes and hopes and hopes.

not just to have mark’s body heat on the other side of the bed, but also to have him there and alive, or at least moved on to something better.

it might be too much to ask for, sure, but yukhei is convinced that the world owes them a few favors.

**Author's Note:**

> this was. so hard to write fjskl it was? kinda rewarding but honestly my head is a Mess so idk fjsdlkds ANYWAYS. i rlly hope u enjoyed reading this!!!!
> 
> if u guys leave kudos/bookmarks/comments then?? thank u so much i adore u guys sjdkd  
> and if u wanna talk to me abt this fic, markhei, or literally anything else, then come chat on [curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/6woojin) or [twitter](http://twitter.com/woo6in)!!
> 
> ps: cc anon reminded me but uhhh here r some fun facts for this au:  
> -prob takes place in the us just bc of the connotation of motels in korea sdfhd  
> -the owner of the motel is a rlly old guy!! his nephew (donghyuck) was gonna help take care of it over the summer, but it keeps getting pushed back, so he hasnt ever come by yet  
> -the old woman who talks to/complains abt yukhei is jisungs mom, and she shares gossip w him  
> -yukhei's road trip was done the summer after he graduated hs!!  
> -mark went to a rival hs, w his death reported as natural causes (ie: not murder) so yukhei heard abt it on the news  
> -the guy who rented the room before yukhei (the one that freaked out and ran) was ten


End file.
